India and Pakistan to Open Kashmir Border for Quake Aid

07/11/2005| IslamWeb

Pakistan and India are due to open their frontier in divided Kashmir for earthquake relief, a historic move that has raised hopes for a lasting settlement of their corrosive dispute over the territory.

The event will be on a smaller scale than first envisaged after the disaster on October 8, with only one of five designated crossing points likely to start operating Monday, and the rest possibly opening later in the week.

Kashmiris are also unlikely to be able to cross the heavily defended Line of Control to help stricken relatives for several days because of bureaucratic red tape, meaning that only aid supplies will be brought across.

But officials on both sides -- including Pakistan's military ruler President Pervez Musharraf, who first proposed the idea -- have said it could have peace dividends beyond the immediate benefits to quake victims.

"It could be a historic moment," said Brigadier Tahir Naqvi, the officer in charge of the crossing point at Titrinote on the Pakistani side which is due to open on Monday.

Indian and Pakistani troops have had to clear minefields around the site, known as Chakan da Bagh on the Indian side, a legacy from the decades of hostilities in Kashmir.

They have set up symbolic gateposts on either side as well as four large tents as an entry point, while the Indian army has established a surgery ward and emergency hospital nearby.

"Tents, woollens, medicines and food have all been stockpiled as the camp is meant for an indefinite period," said Indian army spokesman S.N. Acharya from Chakan da Bagh.

India said 13 truckloads of relief materials including rice, sugar, tents and medicines were on hand.

Naqvi suggested that the border posts could become a long-term fixture, allowing families who have been divided by the Line of Control for nearly six decades to see more of each other.

"After a year maybe you will find a big terminal coming up here. It's quite possible," Naqvi told AFP. "We are doing things with an element of permanence in them."

Increasing contact between people in both countries is one of the key confidence-building measures agreed on by India and Pakistan when they launched their slow-moving peace process in January 2004.

In April the two sides allowed the first official opening of the Line of Control since the late 1940s by starting a fortnightly bus service to reunite families in the Indian and Pakistani zones.

Muslim-majority Kashmir has been split between the two countries since independence from Britain in 1947, causing two of their three wars since then and remaining the core dispute between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

Almost immediately after the huge quake -- which killed more than 73,000 people in Pakistan, many of them in its part of the Himalayan region, and 1,300 in Indian Kashmir -- there was talk of a silver lining in the form of closer ties.

Yet the plans to open the crossing points have been beset by the kind of squabbling and security consciousness that often affects attempts to patch up relations between Islamabad and New Delhi.

Pakistan said it would be ready to open all five on Monday, while India says it can only do one, followed by another at Kaman on Wednesday and a third in Tithwal on Thursday, with no mention of the other two.

Islamabad also added that people would not be permitted to cross yet because the two countries had not yet exchanged lists of travellers.

Kashmiris say all they want is to be able to help before winter adds to the death toll from the quake. Snow has been forecast in the area this week and three million people are still homeless in Pakistan alone.

"I want the two governments to sort out the issue so that divided families can meet without any hassle," said Mohammed Din, a farmer in Indian Kashmir with relatives on the Pakistani side.

PHOTO CAPTION

A Pakistani army officer (L) and an Indian army officer shake hands over the Line of Control (LoC) in Titrinote, Pakistan-administered Kashmir, about 180-km (111.8 miles) east of Islamabad, November 7, 2005. (REUTERS)